The last chapter for the Buffalo Bills in Rich/Ralph/Corporate Sponsor Stadium will begin in a few short weeks. What this means for Bills fans will vary a lot depending on age and personal memories. Some may celebrate its end because of the winless-in-four-straight-Super-Bowl karma of the 90s, while many others will celebrate experiences shared there. Many memories don’t involve the Buffalo Bills; concerts, Winter Classic for the NHL, etc. Regardless of age or experience, its the end of an era in Western New York.
There have been many reminders in my personal life about the ‘Last Chapter’ lately, so discussing the last season for the Buffalo Bills in their current stadium seems fitting. The same day Marv Levy turns 100 years old on August 3rd, I will be welcomed into my 70s. Marv always has humbled me about old age. No one does it better than Coach Levy, that’s for sure.
Marv Levy and his great teams provided more lasting memories in the current stadium than any other coach of the Buffalo Bills. It would seem fitting to honor Levy’s century-mark on this planet by punctuating this era with a Super Bowl win.
What a way to ‘mic-drop’ in Orchard Park. Please let us manifest this into existence.
So along the way I’m learning that maybe ‘Last Chapters’ are a theme worth exploring. I’ve had a few recently as a reminder that last chapters can be very short or very long, or anything in between.
In the last year we lost our beautiful rescue dog Paisley, one of our best friends died and we are about to lose our last dog to bladder cancer. Wise old farts warned me about this last chapter being one series of losses after another.
They were right. Again.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what I could post that would have any relevance beyond the usual content involving projections/analysis from afar because there is not much to write about what is going on in the NFL for the next few weeks. In fact, less news is good news because the only news is usually bad behavior or worse until the start of training camp.
In that spirit, I decided instead of bloviating about some faux drama or attempt to analyze the already over-analyzed data that may or may not accurately predict the future any better than Miss Cleo… I would use this opportunity to share my thoughts about both being in the last chapter of an era of Buffalo Bills history as well as my own.
Old fart Bills fans (I really don’t like Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, Gen Z designations) probably have a different view of moving into the shiny new stadium than younger fans in Buffalo. Young people rightfully want to move out of an antiquated stadium built LONG before the internet came along.
Our creaky old girl has about as many cracks in its underlying structure as I do.
Last chapters are most often highly meaningful because it’s where everything that happens during previous chapters are all tied together in a nice neat bow and brought to a proper conclusion. If only life was so evenly presented as chapters in a book…
My guess is the end to the stadium currently known as ‘Highmark’ might be less dramatic (or not) than my own. The death of a stadium is most often better planned in advance, though my life experience as an oncology nurse/psychotherapist has prepared me well for this chapter.
Over the next few weeks, I would like to post some of my thoughts about last chapters. Follow along if you like and if you don’t, please don’t fill the comments with a bunch of rude comments. I’m just trying to leave some of my thoughts behind in a place where I know some old Bills fans might find it and where some younger Buffalo fans might get a chuckle.
If you have any question to ask this fossilized fan about what it’s like knowing one is entering the last chapter, feel free to ask in the comment section. Old person wisdom needs to be passed along.
Editor’s babble: You can also find me blabbering on Xwitter @RobynMundyWYO or Bluesky @RobynMundyWYO.bsky.social.
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